Social media finds ‘fairer’ system after Make Yourself at Home travel vouchers snapped up
Astute social media users have figured out a way to make the state government’s Make Yourself At Home travel voucher system fair for everyone. LATEST >>
Tasmania
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IN A little over an hour last night the $5 million second round of Tasmania’s Make Yourself At Home travel vouchers ran out.
Keen holiday makers reported website crashes and phone-in delays, but astute social media commenters have deduced a way to keep it fair for everyone: a ballot system.
#politas serious talk @GutweinTeam. Run the travel vouchers as a lottery. Gives people ample time to register. And you can draw it whenever you want. Bingo no service overload.
— Phartiphukborlz (@PeteLawler) October 1, 2020
Several commenters suggested the system, where names are randomly drawn from a ballot.
“So the state government assumes everyone who would like to enjoy these discounts, has, a computer, the internet, an efficient internet, is computer literate and perhaps a guru to get in the back door. A timely ballot including mail in would have been the fairest,” said a reader.
Some defended the system, saying it’s 2020 – the internet is the way of things.
Well that was a waste of my life again. What use having a message that says “if you are disabled, please try againâ€. It really doesn’t solve the problem.#tastravelvoucher #politas
— Nica Cordover (@nicacordover) September 30, 2020
“Internet is not a luxury anymore, but a necessity for 99 per cent of the population. It’s a service just the same as power and water in today’s times. You could also choose to live without either of those if you want, but don’t expect the same offering as those who use it. If you choose not use the internet, fine, but don’t complain when you can’t access things that are only available on the internet.
“Age is no barrier to the internet, only the individual’s choice. The days of ballots and mail ins are long gone. Not to mention how expensive and time consuming that process would be,” they said.
Others have questioned why the system has only changed slightly – allowing for similar mistakes as last time.
“Terribly poor administration all around. Why can’t the government learn from their mistakes after the first voucher round with the website crashing constantly,” asked another reader.
On Facebook readers were far less forgiving of the system.
“It didn’t take 64 minutes. If the system had a proper queue for registering (like MONA does for events) it would have been fully subscribed in 5 minutes. People facing technical issues should demand to know why government IT is so sluggish,” Ashtok Munna Singh said.
“I gave up after 45 minutes. If you live in the country like the Tasman Peninsula as me you had no hope. Very disappointing for those who have no broadband access available,” Cathryn Ruzicka said.
EARLIER: IT ONLY took 64 minutes for the $5 million second round of Tasmania’s Make Yourself at Home travel vouchers to run out with widespread website crashes and phone-in delays reported.
Some 35,000 people, or one in 15 Tasmanians, logged onto the site.
Tasmanians caught up in the desperate rush immediately faced crashed web pages, error messages and engaged phone lines.
Some reported website crashes before the vouchers had even gone live.
One caller – who did not want to be named – said she called the 1800 344 077 hotline “about 60 times” with each call either dropping out or being met with a voice recording saying the number was unavailable.
The caller said she was supportive of the government’s efforts to stimulate the tourism sector but felt the rollout was inadequate.
“The intent is excellent and all we want to do is do our part,” she told The Mercury.
“If there’s not enough phone operators then don’t advertise it as an option.”
The caller – who said she has a disability – said she missed out on round one using the online portal and had to use the hotline this time around as her iPad was not working.
She was not alone.
The Mercury tried the numerous times to reach the hotline an experienced much of the same.
“Connection to the area you are calling is temporally unavailable,” one voice recording said.
Another thanked the caller and reverted them to the website before telling them to “try again later” due to high traffic flow.
The vast majority of our calls were fielded by a dead line.
Hundreds of Mercury readers said they had major issues when asked for their experiences on Facebook with some even having issues navigating the site.
“The website crashed, the button didn’t work, the phone number failed,” Steven Mallows responded.
“Register button wasn’t there to click and kept going on a loop back to home page,” Claire Dennis said.
“No luck! Page froze and then said the service is unavailable. Ridiculous,” Fiona Wells said.
“A website which stopped working at 7pm, two phone numbers which were on the website said “The number you have dialled has been disconnected”, Jorinde Tenten said.
Twitter users shared a “back door link” as it was the only apparent link that seemed to work, while direct access via the more obvious Travel Vouchers page failed for most.
The first round ran out within 40 minutes of applications being opened in early September.
But hope remains for the unlucky punters as the Tasmanian hospitality industry puts the pressure on for a third tranche of the Make Yourself at Home voucher scheme, this time supporting struggling restaurants, cafes, pubs and bars.
Premier Peter Gutwein thanked Tasmanians for embracing the scheme.
“I know Tasmanians who missed out will be disappointed, but this initiative is about supporting our tourism and hospitality industry and it’s been welcomed by Tasmanians in droves,” he said.
“For those Tasmanians who did miss out, I’d urge you all to still get out and support the industry if you are able.”
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